The attackers hopped over a crumbling brick wall, wearing backpacks and belts with dangling grenades. They were young and wore beards, and by 7:30 a.m. on Monday, they were firing machine guns into an unarmed crowd of young police recruits.

Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, came under attack for the second time this month. This time, militants hit several hundred police cadets caught off guard during a morning drill at their academy in this village near Lahore, Punjab’s capital.

The attackers issued no demands but went on a rampage, killing at least eight recruits and instructors. One attacker was killed in the siege that followed and, in a gory finale, three detonated suicide belts, killing themselves. More than 100 people were wounded.

A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up in a government building on the southern outskirts of the city of Kandahar on Monday, killing at least eight people, including five police officers and three civilians, and wounding six others, officials said.

The attack took place a few minutes before noon on the second floor of the building, in an area where Afghan identification cards are issued, said Gen. Ghulam Ali Wahdat, the regional head of police. The district police chief was among the wounded, he said.

Taliban bombs are getting larger and more sophisticated, the head of the government’s Afghan task force said Thursday, according to a report.

David Mulroney, the deputy minister of the government’s Afghanistan task force, told a House of Commons committee looking into Afghanistan that the bombs are being used against Canadian soldiers in Kandahar, Reuters reported.

“The tragedy is that as we arm and equip and protect our people, insurgents continue to develop more insidious improvised explosive devices,” Reuters quoted Mulroney as saying.

After agreeing to bury their differences and unite forces, Taliban leaders based in Pakistan have closed ranks with their Afghan comrades to ready a new offensive in Afghanistan as the United States prepares to send 17,000 more troops there this year.

In interviews, several Taliban fighters based in the border region said preparations for the anticipated influx of American troops were already being made. A number of new, younger commanders have been preparing to step up a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide attacks to greet the Americans, the fighters said.